National battery testing facility

Project completed by Future Battery Industries CRC which receives allocation of MRIWA funds.

The Challenge

To scale and compete, local manufacturers of batteries and storage systems need to demonstrate their products are as safe and efficient as products produced internationally.

Currently, there is no comprehensive Australian battery testing facility with capability and capacity to test battery systems to international standards for reliable and safe operation.

Proposed Solution

This project will develop a national facility ‘The FBICRC National Battery Testing Centre’ with the capability to integrate, test and characterise a wide range of battery types up to and including large-scale systems.

The facility will test battery systems to international standards for reliable and safe operation when deployed in main grids, micro‐grids, and other large-scale applications such as electric vehicles, defence applications, and mining. It will also provide the basis for nationally accepted standards for deployment of these systems in local and national electricity grids.

Proposed Benefit to WA

The capability to test battery systems from Australian manufacturers under operational conditions will provide a service for performance and safety verification against existing commercially-available battery energy storage solutions (BESS).

The ability to test and benchmark large-scale BESS’s under operational conditions within a functional transmission grid is key to developing practical storage systems for implementation into Australia’s electricity network.